Alumni Class Notes: Fall 2017 Edition

By:
Sarah Schupp, Tue, 01/09/2018

Graduates of the undergraduate and Ph.D. programs in the Department of Economics have had an impact not only on economics but also on a wide range of industries around the world. We are always interested in hearing from our alumni and look forward to sharing your successes. To submit a class note and read more about interacting with current economics students, please visit our Alumni page.

Class of 1954

Hugh Schwartz

Recently published 2016 Revision of “Behavioral Economics for Skeptics”

Class of 1962

Houston H. Stokes

He obtained a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago in 1969. He retired after 50 years from the Department of Economics at the University of Illinois at Chicago in May 2017.

Class of 1964

Matthew Sonfield

Sonfield is nearing retirement as the Robert F. Dall Distinguished Professor in Business at Hofstra University. He has authored over 350 academic journal articles and conference proceedings papers, with a research focus on entrepreneurship, small business, family business and minority business. His teaching focus is strategic management.

Class of 1966

Ann-Marie Meulendyke

Meulendyke spent much of her career at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Her primary focus was on issues related to implementing monetary policy. After retiring, she worked on a variety of part-time and a number of short-term consulting trips; mostly for the IMF, central banks, and finance ministries around the world. She has also written for “Fed Watcher” series.

Class of 1971

Herrick Lidstone

Lidstone is the author of "The Securities Law Deskbook"

Class of 1983

Paul Beedle

In July 2015, Beedle was called to serve as minister for the First Unitarian Universalist Church of New Orleans, after serving them two years on a contract basis. He is “still bringin' economics into the pulpit.”

Class of 1983

Richard Sciacca

After receiving his Ph.D. in 1983, Sciacca spent his career as an Industrial Organization economist at the FTC Bureau of Economics, as a partner and tax director at Deloitte, and as of 2015, as a partner and transfer pricing service line leader at Bates White Economic Consultants in Washington.

How has your Arts & Sciences Economics degree impacted your life?
“My Cornell Ph.D. was a gateway to an intensely interesting and rewarding career in applied economics. I work with Ph.D. colleagues and academics from the best schools and have always found my academic training second to none.”

Class of 1986

Julie Weed (Bick)

Weed writes about travel industry trends for the New York Times Business Section and for the last two years has been writing regularly for Forbes online covering the legal cannabis industry. Most of Weed’s articles can be found here.

Class of 1993

Council member of the Hong Kong Council on Smoking and Health Appeal Board Member (Housing )and works in Tobacco control of Hong Kong

Alliance businessmen in Hong Kong to sponsoring school bodies in Hong Kong and China

Hearing and Making Judgment of the Hong Kong Public Housing Appeal Cases

Class of 1999

Daniel Rondeau

Rondeau joined the faculty of the Department of Economics at the University of Victoria (Canada) upon completion of his Ph.D. in economics in 1999. He has remained at the University of Victoria for his entire career and serves as a full professor.

How has your Arts & Sciences Economics degree impacted your life?
“The five years spent in Ithaca were wonderful both professionally and personally. The opportunity to conduct research with outstanding faculty at Cornell was a fantastic stepping stone to a fruitful and rewarding career.“

Class of 2005

Class of 2010

Teddy Lu

Wu recently started working as a Research Analyst in Jones Lang LaSalle’s Global Office Leasing Group. The Global Office Leasing Group’s main role is to leverage the company's wide global network of professionals, expertise, and experience to deliver superior service to real estate clients.

How has your Arts & Sciences Economics degree impacted your life?
“The Arts & Science Economics degree certainly has given to me a fresh perspective on the power of markets in allocating resources to different members of society, why some markets fail, the role of government in regulating markets, and how different cultures and systems of philosophies regarding government policy in market regulation shape societies in different countries across the world. Having that knowledge in mind is very powerful when thinking critically about policy issues, and can serve as a useful tool when debating with others on potential solutions to some of the world's problems.”